Inheritance Tax

Scott Arthur Excerpts

Wednesday 14th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Robbie Moore]

That is absolutely right. It is good to see the hon. Member for Penrith and Solway (Markus Campbell-Savours) in his place. I hope that he will intervene in the debate and make it clear that he is also advocating for this cruel tax to be scrapped, just as the Conservatives are doing. There is hope when at least one Labour Member is willing to be bold enough to stand up against this Labour Government.

[Dr Scott Arthur (Edinburgh South West) (Lab)]

I regret that the hon. Gentleman has talked about suicide in this debate. Where was he when we heard the reports of the austerity implemented by his Government causing suicide? Are any Members on the Opposition Benches willing to defend that record? When invoking suicide in this debate, they have to acknowledge their own record.

[Robbie Moore]

I also regret the fact that I am talking about that issue. However, many farming representatives, including those from the National Farmers’ Union, the Country Land and Business Association and the Tenant Farmers Association, gave clear warnings to this Government that if the cliff edge associated with this tax became a reality in April 2026, there would be emotional consequences, such as anxiety. I regret that I have raised the matter, but unfortunately it is absolutely the case that suicide has taken place.

There will be a moment of hope in two weeks’ time when the Budget comes before the House: the Government could bring in 100% relief of APR and business property relief again. I urge the Government to do so and to listen to those strong calls from the industry. The hon. Gentleman asks where I was during austerity. Well, I have been a Member of Parliament for only six and a bit years. Before that, I was not in this place making any of those decisions.

There are also issues around the changes to the implementation of inheritance tax. The first payment of the tax will be due within six months of death, but the asset base will first have to be valued, so inevitably there will be challenges. The district valuers do not have the capacity to deal with the level of challenge that will come from those handling the probate valuations that will inevitably have to take place.

It worries me that, as the IHT debate has taken place in the House over the past two years, hardly any Labour MPs have stood up and advocated for the manufacturing, engineering and hotelier businesses that, I suspect, employ many of their constituents, providing them with their salaries and with opportunities to continue in a working environment. That worries me because I feel that the narrative has been lost to Labour Members. We have got time before the Budget for that narrative to change, and I firmly stand with the Conservative position that 100% relief for APR and BPR must be put back in place, and I ask the Government to listen and do something about it.

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[Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst (Solihull West and Shirley) (Con)]

One of the liberating elements of speaking at this stage of the debate is that many excellent and eminently sensible points have already been made, so I can do an assorted highlights of the best bits that have come out of it. But it has made me reflect that perhaps if we all took a stroll down to Clapham, got on the omnibus, and spoke to the man and woman who had boarded it, I suspect that their vision of this country would not be the same as the purported utopia that we have heard from those on the Government Benches today. I suspect that if we asked people what they want to see from the tax system, they would want to see something that is not unnecessarily detrimental to a single group and not punitive in its intent. Fundamentally, it should not be something that disincentivises those who have done the right thing.

Looking at the tax landscape in this country, it has become far too complicated and burdensome—we are now at more than 20,000 pages of tax codes, whereas in 1997 there were fewer than 5,000.

[Dr Arthur]

I have never been on the Clapham omnibus, but I expect that there may well be people in low-paid jobs on that who are struggling with the cost of living crisis. When the hon. Gentleman speaks to people on the omnibus, do they tell him that they want people who inherit properties worth half a million pounds or more to pay less tax? Is that the answer to the problems facing people on the Clapham omnibus? Is that what they are saying?

[Dr Shastri-Hurst]

I recommend that the hon. Gentleman get on the Clapham omnibus, because it is a great opportunity to have his finger on the pulse of the British public. I think most will say that they want a fair system so that when they have worked, strived and built up a legacy for the next generation, they have something to hand down, because that is the most loving thing that people can do. I have not built up a family business or run a family farm, and I cannot imagine the stresses and strains that that involves, but these individuals understandably want to hand their businesses down to the next generation. We need them to do so, because if we do not have the farmers of tomorrow and the generation after that, we will not have on our tables the food that we enjoy today and that we hope our children will enjoy in years to come.

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[Markus Campbell-Savours]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Dr Arthur]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Lewis Cocking]

No, I will not give way. I have taken two interventions, and a number of Members want to speak.

If we want to unlock the next generation of entrepreneurs and back the people who give their blood, sweat and tears when they go out to work every day to make our country great and what it is today, this is what we need to do, and we have a clear plan to pay for it. We will cut Government spending by £71 billion, including by cutting overseas aid to £1 billion a year. We would reduce welfare spending by £36 billion and support young people into work, rather than a life on benefits. Alongside our pledges to scrap the family farm tax and scrap the family business tax, these are bold changes that will get our economy growing.

Enabling people to keep and pass on more of their own money is how we encourage people to invest, take risks and create new opportunities. Inheritance tax is not the only example. I regularly speak to constituents who feel that they are better off financially to refuse a promotion or more hours at work, because it does not make sense for them to work harder and get less. I have spoken to self-employed tradespeople who turn down work because they are too close to the VAT threshold. That just cannot be right. I speak to businesses and to people who work. It is absolutely crazy that they turn down employment and business because they will be worse off, paying more taxes under this Labour Government.

Until we shift the incentives in our economy—incentives that make a life on benefits more attractive than getting a job and that will put off businesses from creating new jobs—we will never improve the situation our country faces. Labour has a choice at the Budget on 28 October: they can copy the clear plan we have set out to make savings and cut welfare, or they can continue down the same road. Sadly, I just think they are not listening.

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[Victoria Atkins]

That will not plough any furrows with the farmers in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency whom he has just described as the “idle rich”. What is more, he has got his figures wrong. He keeps throwing these figures around, but in fact that Tax Policy Associates think-tank that so many Labour colleagues seem to rely on has said that by the end of this decade one in six families will pay inheritance tax—many of them in his constituency, which I know well.

The hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay (Noah Law) voted for the family farm and family business tax only a mere six times—he missed one of them—but he had the bright idea that farmers should get life insurance and planning advice. How on earth are farmers in his constituency on an income of around £20,000 a year going to afford that? It is yet more business taxes.

We also heard a reliance on Dan Neidle and his organisation Tax Policy Associates. I merely make the point, so that it is open and transparent, that Dan Neidle is a senior member of the Labour party and served for three years on its disciplinary committee.

The Conservatives are setting out the tough decisions to cut spending and help hard-working families up and down the country invest in their businesses and homes, ready to hand over to their families. People who have worked hard, paid their income tax, lived within their means and saved have not done so in order for the current Labour Chancellor to tax that all over again. They have done so because they have a deep desire to leave something to help the next generation prosper when they are no longer here.

[Dr Arthur]

Where domestic properties are concerned, of course more people are getting drawn into paying the tax because the thresholds have been frozen. I am sure that the Minister who came to the House in 2022 to say that the rates at that time were to be frozen until 2028 is currently at the Opposition’s Dispatch Box.

[Victoria Atkins]

I am so glad that the hon. Gentleman has brought that up, because not only did his first Chancellor extend the freeze, but she dragged pensioners into it. It is literally the worst of all words.

Let me reiterate the point I just made, because it is an important one. Under this Government, one in six families will be liable to pay inheritance tax by 2030. That means many more constituents being liable to pay the tax. The hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay said that our idea to axe inheritance tax on the family home was bonkers. I hate to break it to him, but Austria, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have all done the same.

The reason why we are doing it, and why this is so important, is that we know it is families who build this country; it is families who put down roots. They build a home, they run a farm or they start a business, and they bring prosperity and vibrancy to our villages and our towns. So I make the promise that the Conservatives will axe these taxes if Labour does not does so at the Budget, because only the Conservatives are the party of the family home, the family business and the family farm, and only the Conservatives will get Britain working again.